Two men have been charged with the murder of Ripudaman Singh Malik

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July 27, 2022 • 56 minutes ago • 3 minutes read • 5 comments Police are investigating the killing of Ripudaman Singh Malik on July 14, 2022 Photo by Jason Payne /PNG

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The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says charges have been laid in the July 14 killing of controversial Surrey businessman Ripudaman Singh Malik.

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Malik, who was acquitted of murder charges in the 1985 Air India bombing, was shot as he arrived at his business in an industrial complex at 8236 128 Street.

Tanner Fox, 21, and Jose Lopez, 23, have been charged with first-degree murder.

Both are due to appear at Surrey Crown Court today.

Both faced violent crime charges long before Malik’s murder.

Tanner Fox in 2019 Photo by Abbotsford Police Photo by Abbotsford Police

Lopez was indicted in Kelowna last summer on nine felony charges, including possession of a firearm with ammunition, pointing a gun, violating a court order for possession of firearms and resisting arrest. The matter was sent from the provincial court to the Supreme Court last October.

Dan McLaughlin, a spokesman for the British Columbia prosecutor’s office, said Wednesday that Lopez is due to stand trial on the gun charges in November with a Dec. 5 trial date in Kelowna.

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“He was ordered released on those charges on $5,000 cash bail with conditions on July 30, 2021,” McLaughlin said. “BCPS opposed his release.”

Lopez was also convicted in September 2019 of assault causing bodily harm and assault with a weapon for an incident in Abbotsford a year earlier. He received an 18-month suspended sentence and a 10-year firearms ban.

Fox was convicted last April of resisting or obstructing a peace officer and sentenced to four days in jail.

He was convicted of assault causing bodily harm in connection with a November 2019 stabbing in Abbotsford and sentenced to 119 days in jail and a 10-year firearms ban. And last fall, he was charged with aggravated assault in connection with the New Westminster incident. He was free on $500 bond at the time of Malik’s murder.

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Both young men have ties to Abbotsford.

More details will be released this afternoon.

After the murder, IHIT released a chilling video of a white Honda CRV driving through the parking lot of the complex where Papillon is based, about 80 minutes before the shooting. It looks like there’s more than one person inside.

Investigators said the suspects were inside waiting for Malik, 75.

The Honda was found burning six blocks away shortly after the target hit.

Malik was a one-time Air India bombing suspect linked to the Sikh separatist movement. He was acquitted of murder and conspiracy charges in March 2005.

The controversial figure was also the founder of Khalsa Credit Union and Satnam Education Society, which run several independent schools and receive funding from the British Columbia government.

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Malik used the school’s letterhead to write to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January, offering his support and thanking Modi for trying to address outstanding issues surrounding the treatment of Sikhs.

Some criticized Malik for the letter, in which he also expressed support for a united India in contrast to his previous separatist stance.

Police said after the killing that a motive had not been established and that IHIT had “a number of investigative avenues available.

“Postmedia has spoken to more than a dozen people who knew Malik or who worked on the investigation into the June 23, 1985 Air India bombing that killed 329 people.

No one believed Malik’s murder, which everyone described as shocking, had anything to do with the terror plot 37 years ago.

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